Parents with more money to spend on their children’s education for private tutors tended to get better grades in key subjects at school including Korean, English and math. Also, students with high TOEIC scores or who went overseas to study foreign languages had a higher chance of landing a job than those who did not.
With English grades, the gap between students in urban areas and the countryside was the biggest. Among children in sixth grade of elementary schools, the gap was around 40 percent, even wider than the disparity in Korean (20 percent) or math (30 percent) scores.
In addition, the TOEIC scores of university graduates were found to have a close correlation to their experience studying abroad or the level of their parents’ education, the study showed.
The wide gap in English proficiency highly important in Korean society especially marked when it comes to finding a job. Jobseekers with high TOEIC scores or experience abroad had a much better chance of landing job interviews than others.
The report shows that the higher the TOEIC score, the higher a person‘s chances of getting a decent job with a big company. However, many of them end up with duties where their English-language skills are little use.
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